Facebook's Messenger is now testing self-destructive chats in France

Facebook is now testing a self-destructive messaging feature. At the moment, it looks like the new ephemeral messages are only available to users of the Facebook Messenger mobile app in France. On the long run, however, the social network giant might have much bigger plans for this Snapchat-like feature.

When most of us think of self-destructing instant messaging, Snapchat is probably the first service that comes to mind. Naturally, there are a lot of things that make Snapchat such a successful IM platform, but the self-destructive nature of its chat sessions remains to this day Snapchat's core feature.

Other major instant messaging services, such as Asian favorites Line or WeChat, have recently launched ephemeral messaging features of their own, but Snapchat's biggest challenge will probably come from Facebook, a company that reportedly attempted to buy Snapchat for nearly $3 billion back in 2013.

Facebook Messenger, the instant messaging service that used to live within the main Facebook app, now has more than 700 million registered users across the globe.

To start sending self-destructive messages, Facebook Messenger users in France can now tap an hourglass icon located in the top-right corner of the mobile app. At any point, the user can turn off the feature and return to sending permanent messages. Ephemeral messages will disappear in an hour.